Statement to Permanent Missions to the United Nations, New York, 10th Anniversary of the Syrian Revolution
Excellencies, esteemed peers, ladies and gentlemen,
I was born in Syria, spent the best part of my childhood in my beloved United States, and much of my adult life in the UK and different corners of the European Union, of which I am a proud citizen. On regular visits to Syria, I would wish for its people what we take for granted in the US and in Europe – rule of law, freedom of speech, basic human dignity, and, to borrow from that most famous of preambles, certain unalienable Rights, such as Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness.
Young people everywhere have dared to dream that their lives are just as valuable as those for whom those words were written, words that the democratic world has preached for decades. Never again, we were told … only to find ourselves in a never before situation. How?
Never before has the world been able to observe - in real time - the destruction of a nation and the extermination of a people who dared to demand dignity and freedom.
Never before has a civilian population been filmed under attack with barrel bombs, savage airstrikes and chemical weapons by its “own” illegitimate authorities.
Never before have starvation sieges and old-fashioned barbaric massacres been so well documented as they happened.
Never before has torture on an industrial scale been so evidenced.
Never before has the world’s indifferent silence been so loud, save for perfunctory condemnations and erasable red lines.
And never before have the mightiest superpowers the world has ever known shamelessly pretended to be impotent. Syria is the not only the epicenter of the greatest crimes against humanity in modern history, but also the epicenter of our collective failure as a global community.
So here we are today, again, marking another anniversary and repeating the same mantras year after year. The only updates are in the horrific numbers that have come to summarize the Assad regime’s war on the Syrian people. In 10 years, the numbers of killed, wounded, maimed, displaced, tortured, detained, forcibly exiled continue to rise.
Since we marked the last anniversary of the Revolution, Bashar Assad celebrated his 20th year on the throne, and the Assad dynasty marked its 50th year of dominating, subjugating and terrorizing the Syrian population.
So, would you care to wager on what else we will be mentioning in March 2022? Or should we rather cut to the chase and decide, once and for all, that this anniversary should be the last of its kind?
It’s complicated, some of you say. No, it’s really not.
Despite every atrocity they have endured, Syrians are still raising their Independence flag as they continue to demand a life of dignity. They have never raised a white flag. So why, WHY are you all raising a giant white flag in surrender to undemocratic forces, even as they impact life in your own countries?
This gluttonous, incompetent, barbaric regime is unreformable, proving repeatedly it will use all means at its disposal to maintain its violent hold on power. So yank away this blanket of legitimacy you are inexplicably giving to actors who prop up a genocidal maniac boasting he will not negotiate, refusing to comply with even the most basic demands of Security Council Resolution 2254.
THEY are desperate to come out of this entanglement, and the solution is with you. They want reconstruction money? We want the right conditions to allow Syrians to turn a page. They want a nuclear deal? We want a cessation of armed interference from all their militias in the entire region. They want sanctions relief? We want to free all detainees, allow aid to reach all Syrians, and let them decide for themselves how to run their country.
We want accountability for all, so that we can have justice and peace.
Syrians started their revolution 10 years ago; it’s time the international community started its own as well. Fight this war, not the last ones, and fight it with logic, resolve and unity, not with weapons.
Make the solution a new precedent, not only so that surviving Syrians can go home and begin to rebuild their country and their lives, hand in hand with the millions of Syrians still held hostage in regime controlled areas, but also so that no other evil force is ever led to believe it can wreak havoc and sow the seeds of radical despair anywhere on our planet.
Here’s hoping that your legacy will be one which inspires your own people, and for which young, educated, healthy Syrians will one day thank you. The ball is in your court.
Thank you for your kind attention.
Rime Allaf, March 18, 2021
